Tuesday, September 3, 2013

SQLite support

Another nice feature for gvSIG CE: we have implemented SQLite support as a new
gvSIG CE extension.

With this new development it is possible to add a new layer to a view from
a SQLite file with spatial data. Besides, it is possible to load SQLite files without
spatial data (or with spatial data but ignoring it) as new tables in gvSIG CE.

In order to add the layer/table, a new wizard has been created. This wizard is very
similar to the wizard for simple files but adds some extra inputs on the bottom to
specify which of the tables contained in the SQLite file must be loaded and which
geometry column to use if it is going to be loaded as a layer:

Moreover, the SQLite support is not reduced to data visualization. It is also possible
to edit SQLite data by using the common editing tools for layers and tables. For this
purpose, the new extension uses GDAL/OGR to access SQLite data, which is a guarantee of stability and performance.

In the technical aspect, we have used the official GDAL/OGR Java bindings to access
GDAL/OGR from Java. As a side task, we have also replaced our custom JGDAL bindings, used for raster data, with the same official GDAL Java bindings. Thus, we don't have to maintain the JGDAL bindings but simply build the GDAL ones.

The GDAL version we have used for this development is 1.10. This feature will be
available in the next gvSIG CE release.